The Sentry

A one-person show performed by Alexander Lykov based on the story of the same name by N.S. Leskov.
Nikolay Postnik, who was on watch in guard duty, in a long and truly tormenting struggle with himself had to choose between duty and compassion…

Nikolay Leskov «A Man on Watch» is a story from 1887. Its original title was «The Salvation of One Who Was Perishing». The story features a number of historical figures: Captain Miller, the chief police officer Kokoshkin, and Lieutenant Colonel Svinin; in «the lord,» contemporaries recognized Metropolitan Filaret; mentions are made of Nicholas I and the Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich; and the details of the setting are conveyed quite precisely. The writer’s son, Andrey Nikolayevich, recalls that the story was written from the words of N.I. Miller. However, this is not a retelling of a fact, but an artistic generalization. In the preface, Leskov says: «This is partly a courtly, partly a historical anecdote, not at all bad at characterizing the morals and the direction of a very curious, though extremely poorly marked by history, epoch of the thirties…».